Washington: India has emerged as the world's "premier destination" for Information Technology outsourcing but is yet to catch up in terms of globalisation, consulting firm A T Kearny has said.

In its 2004 Index on Globalisation, it said India has emerged as the world's premier destination for information technology outsourcing. Simultaneously, Internet growth in India exploded with the number of people surfing the World Wide Web growing by 136 per cent, albeit totalling 2 per cent of the population.

However, in terms of globalisation South Asia continues to be the least integrated region in the world--owing in large part to the massive size of its populations, the firm said.

India is ranked next to last at 61st and Pakistan at 46th place. A T Kearny said India experienced a difficult economic year as the slowing global market and violence in Gujarat trimmed trade, investment and growth.

Ireland was ranked as the most globalised country for the third year in a row and Singapore second.

However, it said South Asia saw the most rapid improvement in any region, driven in part by expanding economic linkages with the rest of the world.